Last time I went grocery shopping for vegetables at my neighborhood grocery store, the Turkish shopkeeper added 3 free Turkish chocolate candy bars to my purchases. They were meant as a friendly gift, so I didn’t want to throw them away -although they were little caloric bombs. I don’t like throwing away any food in general and they looked pretty tasty. But I didn’t want to eat them either: I knew I wouldn’t be able to stick to very small portions, taking only a small tiny bite and putting them away for next time. I knew if I opened one bar I would eat them all, feel the sugar rush, followed by a big sugar crash, a sluggish feeling, and cravings I didn’t even have in the first place.
So I decided to make a cake using these candy bars to sweeten the cake. The benefits of eating these candy bars in a cake versus eating them ‘on their own’ are:
- to eat less quantity of candy bar per portion as they are “disseminated” in the cake.
- to avoid eating simple sugars alone: combining them with protein, complex carbs and fiber slows down their absorption and reduces the sugar rush/crash effect.
Ingredients:
- 2 chocolate candy bars you want to get rid of
- 6 egg whites
- 1 can of kidney beans
- 1/2 cup of protein powder. I used a chocolate-flavored soy protein powder. [I'm not a big fan of soy protein's taste in protein shakes but its taste disappears in bake goods. Yes, soy products are not the best choice and I'm aware of the whole "soy controversy" but soy protein is just way cheaper than whey! Whey protein would also work here although the cake might be a bit drier than with soy protein.]
- 2 tbsp of cocoa
- 2 tbsp of corn starch
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- ¼ tbsp of salt
Directions:
Blend all ingredients together in a food processor except the candy bars. (Rinse the canned beans before adding them).
Chop the candy bars and add to the mix.
Bake at 230/250 degrees Celsius for 20 min.
And take a look at the nutrition facts comparison between the bars and the cake:
Nutrition facts of one Turkish chocolate candy bar: 262 cal, 34 g of carbs, 21 g of sugar, 2 g of protein, 13 g of fat per bar.
versus
Estimated nutrition facts for a big slice of the ‘candy-bar-recycling’ cake: 166 cal, 18.2 g of carbs, 6.7 g of sugar, 12.9 g of protein, 4.8 g of fat.
English
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Is there any sort of “bean-y” taste or texture to these? I’m hesitant about using beans like this in a recipe!
Nyx, I think the taste of the chocolate protein, cacao and candy bars “hide” the beans. But if you have never baked a cake using beans before you may want to try a recipe with “no bean taste guarantee” like these black bean brownies from busybuthealthy: http://www.busybuthealthy.com/2010/10/09/brownies
Oh Gosh!! I just loooove this :D It’s 10 days to my birthday and I’m looking for some light cake recipe to use for offering my family and friends and I wanted to make something super-tasty that no one could know is in fact skinny XP I think I’ll try this and come back to tell you if it worked out for me!! :D
THAAAAAAAAAAAAANKS!!!
(Love your web, by the waaaaay!!!!)
Hi Erredere, thanks for your comment! But if I were you I’d have a ‘real’ cake for a special occasion like my birthday to make sure everybody likes it. People who are not used to eating a bit healthier may find that this cake may not be sweet enough. You’ve been warned now!